Towards a Responsible Astrology of the Future

by Faye Cossar

Our solar system as a model for consciousness development and a
guide for co-creating a positive future

With Pluto now firmly in
Capricorn, the time has come for people in positions of authority to use
power wisely and responsibly. This applies to astrologers. We are in a
position of power, not necessarily because we want to be, but because
clients often put us there. In this article, I want to offer suggestions
on how we as astrologers are in a unique position to help co-create a
better global future.

Many see astrology as a belief system or a form of divination. My
view on modern astrology is that it is neither of those. Taking the
divination aspect, astrology can be used to look
at which archetypes are active at certain times and can therefore be used
as a tool to study the future or the past, as Richard Tarnas does
wonderfully in Cosmos and Psyche.(i) The archetypes provide a
powerful model in the study of human nature, including psychological and
spiritual processes.

However, the astrological signs and planets can better be viewed
not just as archetypes but as holons, to use Arthur Koestler's term,(ii) as
they include all forms of matter and non-matter. To quote Dennis Elwell,
a well-known British astrologer, "...as well as the metal lead, Saturn
was associated with the skeleton, gravity, the ageing process, and many
other things besides". (iii) The traditional view was that the planets were
not merely planets, but "the whole area or sphere enclosed by a planet's
orbit – what today we might call a field".(iv) I would go further and
refer to them as the 'morphic' fields that the biologist Dr. Rupert
Sheldrake(v) has written so eloquently about.

Astrology as a model of consciousness

The view assumed in this article is that astrology, like morphic
field theory and spiral dynamics (which will be discussed later), is not
a belief system but a model, although certainly not a simple one.
However, although astrologers themselves often use what happens to a
planet to look at levels of consciousness, this is less well documented
and therefore less well known. This idea fits best with the theory of
'Spiral Dynamics', and I would like to expand on this in this article
with a view to using the depth of knowledge inherent in astrology to add
to the research being done with levels of consciousness.

We do have an effect!

One way to approach this is to use the idea that looking at
something affects consciousness in the sense of awareness. Sheldrake's
experiments with "the sense of being stared at"(vi) suggest that our minds extend out and
affect the objects of our focus. He sums this up with: "Our minds reach
out to touch everything we see. If we look at distant stars, then our
minds stretch out over astronomical distances to touch these heavenly
bodies. Subject and object are indeed confused. Through our perceptions,
the environment is brought within us, but we also extend outwards into
the environment."(vii)

I take this to mean that when we observe something (or we are
observed) our consciousness changes. We are aware of something that we
were not aware of before. We also change the object of our focus, even
planets.

Expanding our horizons

I want to use this idea in looking at the discovery of planets and
other objects in our solar system. As we have become aware of these
objects, our consciousness has extended outwards from the earth
literally, but perhaps also symbolically. So the planetary system may be
seen as a model for the development of consciousness. I have even heard
it said that in some people, new aura layers are developing. Perhaps
transpersonal planets are becoming personal.

The planets orbiting the Sun from Mercury out to Saturn have been
used by astrologers for centuries, although it is unknown when the first
men gazed upon them. However, the generally agreed dates for the
discovery of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are documented, along with those
for the newer objects Chiron, Nessus and Pholus, known as the Centaurs,
and the dwarf planets Ceres and Eris. There are more objects, but I need
to draw the line somewhere.

The Uranus field

One way astrologers determine planetary
meaning is to look at what is happening in the world at the time of a
planet's discovery. Taking Uranus first, the credit was given to Herschel
in 1781 for the discovery. By this time the meanings given to the
luminaries and planets as far out as Saturn were pretty stable, so I
shall begin by looking at the Uranus field. In one huge step, Herschel's
discovery literally doubled the size of the known universe, so applying
our model means that a huge jump in consciousness is required. The Uranus
holon is given the themes of disruption, independence, rebelliousness,
authenticity, technology, computers, change, individuality, lightning and
awakening, to name but a few. The meaning has changed over time,(viii) and
taking the idea of a planet as a morphic field, my view is that this
field is now becoming stabilised. The late 1700s were a time of unrest.
The Declaration of Independence was around this time, as was the French
Revolution. There were big changes there in terms of science, with a
major shift happening from Newton onwards. In fact, astrology became an
outcast at this date, along with anything that cannot be proven. The
traditional science of today had begun.

That the field has become more stable may be seen by the fact that
things fought for then are now commonplace. The baby-boomers have done
much to stabilise this field, and many of them are now able to use
Uranian qualities positively. Sheldrake himself is a good example of
someone who resonates with this field. He is a scientist who is
authentic, not bending to the old norms and values of the scientific
group. He is attempting to change the world-view by being an individual
and by being independent. He also uses technology to help him with his
research. He has a Promethean spark (many astrologers equate Uranus with
Prometheus), wishing to bring fire and light to the masses. Astrologers
could do worse than use him as a role model.

Another major sign for me that we can 'do' Uranus in a more
positive way is the winning of the US Presidential fight in 2008 by
Barack Obama. On that day, the day the two gods Saturn and Uranus
confronted each other across the heavens, Uranus won the bout. Obama is
truly a symbol of a grown-up Uranus holon. The Uranus field is not only
becoming stable; we are seeing how to co-create positively with it.

The Neptune field

Neptune, discovered in 1846, is associated
with séances, spirituality, Eastern philosophy (Madame Blavatsky was an
important figure around this time), hospitals, and later with art,
compassion, music or anything that relates to another realm. Negatively,
it is also associated with addiction and victimisation. The link between
all these is that they are areas where there are no borders or
boundaries. The way science is moving is an acknowledgement of the
Neptunian theme, the idea that we are all one, that things that we cannot
see affect us, that imagination and thoughts have an influence on us.

My view is that the generation being born now is the one that will
stabilise this field. Our generation may not have been able to reach the
tipping point to change this field into something we can use positively.
Children today are all happy with computers, technology and the fact that
they have rights and are individuals. It could be said that they have
Uranus in hand. However, they are suffering from our inability to provide
schools for their sensitivity, also a Neptunian characteristic. Many
children have allergies, or are thought to have attention problems, or
are labelled borderline, perhaps because we don't understand that they
are on a different level or are learning how to be part of a global world
and to use skills such as telepathy. Perhaps the levels of addiction
among children will finally alert us to the fact that we need a global
'twelve step' programme, a programme that actually emphasises positive
Neptunian ideas of letting go and trusting in a higher power, alerts us
to the need to understand children in other ways and make major changes
in our education system. Unfortunately, to quote Einstein, "The
significant problems we have, cannot be solved at the same level of
thinking with which we created them." We need a new mindset or
consciousness level.

Pluto and beyond…

Pluto was discovered in 1930, and is therefore associated with
gangsters, Hitler, atomic power, and control. Pluto is, to my mind, still a
very unstable morphic field and we are mostly seeing the negative side of
power. There are few people with influence in the world who can use power
in an authentic and pure way. Mandela might be an example. Obama promises
to be. Even though Pluto is now deemed a dwarf planet, the morphic field
is still strong and being added to. The renaming is important because it
puts Pluto on an equal level with the other dwarf planet holons, but that
will take time to stabilise. It could be said that the world values the
planets' qualities more than those of the dwarf planets, and also that
the dwarf planet characteristics are equal in importance to each other –
i.e. the Ceres holon is now just as important as the Pluto one. It is
therefore interesting that Ceres, known as a planet since 1801, then an
asteroid and now again a planet, albeit a dwarf, is on the same level as
Pluto. Ceres, a grieving mother, rules grain and has control over the
seasons. She has a lot to teach us about global warming and genetic
manipulation of food. Perhaps in today's world we need to honour her as
much as power (part of the Pluto holon). Astrologers take note! Eris is
more of a worry. With her discovery, we are bringing a bloodthirsty woman
into consciousness. She is a powerful feminine archetype who loves war.
Being new, she has a very unstable field, but the parallels in the world
can clearly be seen in our apparent lust for conflict and war. We need to
find the positive side of the powerful feminine.

Where are we?

It seems to me that we have a number of people at different
consciousness levels. Astrology has no way of identifying these. If we
look at a chart, we don't have any idea about where someone is in terms
of what might be called spiritual development. This is why I found the
model called Spiral Dynamics very exciting for astrologers. It was named
by Don Beck,(ix) who used an original idea from Clare Graves. Ken
Wilber expands on the model, which shows levels of consciousness, in his
book Boomeritis,(x) sometimes very humorously. There are now colours
for the levels, which unfortunately don't seem to have any significance.
The model itself, however, is very interesting. Although at the moment it
is used mostly for business purposes, it can also be applied to many
other areas. By combining astrology with a model that is being taken
seriously, we may be able to give astrology more credence, better press
and a higher profile. I think that Spiral Dynamics can be taken as a
metaphor for our solar system, with the planets related to levels of
consciousness.

The Spiral Dynamics model

Firstly, let me describe the model. There are two tiers containing
different levels (memes). The model maintains, as do many other systems,
that we are at the stage of a major consciousness leap. The idea is that
there is a certain percentage of the population at each level. Research
has also been done(xi) to find out what the percentage of world
leaders is at each level. In Figure 1, the colours of each meme are given
with their names and qualities (very briefly, as they each contain a lot
of information that matches better with the holon principle). The
Population/Power column gives the percentages of population at each level
and an estimate of how many leaders are at that level of consciousness.
The Years column shows an estimate of how long the level exists, and the
planet column shows my attempt to match each level with a specific
planet.

1st Tier

Population / Power

Years

Planet

Beige - Survial Sense
Instinctual

0.1 % / 0 %

100'000

Moon

Purple - Kin Spirits
Harmony and Safety

10 % / 1 %

50'000

Venus

Red - Power Gods
Egocentric

20 % / 5 %

10'000

Mars

Blue - Truth Force
Order and Purpose

40 % / 30 %

5'000

Saturn

Orange - Strive Drive
Strategise

30 % / 50 %

1'000

Jupiter

Green - Human Bond
Communitarian

10 % / 15 %

150 (around year 1850)

Uranus

2nd Tier

Yellow - Flex Flow
Integrative

1% / 5 %

50 (around year 1950)

Neptune

Turquoise - Whole View
Holistic

0.1 % / 1 %

30 (around year 1970)

?Chiron

Figure 1: Spiral Dynamics model with suggestion for
planet for each meme(xii)

This table has since been updated to the table shown in Figure
2.(xiii)

Since 2003, Coral (otherworldly and enlightened) and Teal (as
distinct from Turquoise!) have been added after Turquoise, but little has
been said about them other than they might be a higher version of Red and
Blue. The suggestion is that the system is open-ended and will continue
to develop as human consciousness develops.

This implies that only an estimated 2.5%
(2003) of the population are at the second tier, i.e. that the jump in
consciousness necessary to take us to an integrated global, holistic view
in the world can be achieved by very few people. 6% of people in power
are ready to do this. I imagine Obama might be one of these. The highest
proportion of the population and leaders are at what I have called the
Jupiter and Saturn levels of Blue and Orange, so I will concentrate on
these levels and above. However, I will mention that the Red level is a
good match for Mars! One colour they got right. The Blue level is almost
textbook Saturn, with its good and bad properties. That we are still at
this level can be seen by what is happening as I write this (June 2009)
with the measures being taken for the pandemic Mexican Swine 'Flu (not to
mention the global financial crisis). The fear that is being created and
the slaughtering of the poor pigs who are getting the blame, the
isolation, the science, the restrictions on trade, all show very strong
Saturnian qualities. We are still operating under the auspices of this
level of consciousness.

The Orange level, which I have associated with Jupiter,
is not such a good fit, but it does have a lot of similarities with the
planet. I think Green also has some Neptunian qualities as well, so if I
had made the model I would have changed it slightly! Anyway, back to
Orange and Jupiter. It should of course be as old as the Saturn level,
although perhaps Saturn being the most distant known planet for a long
time, had more attention, and was therefore a bigger field. The SD model
is only a theory; perhaps we astrologers know better!

Am I Orange?

Ken Wilber in Boomeritis says of Orange "I want to achieve
and win and get somewhere in my life. I like to play and win and I enjoy
competition.… Gather the data, build a strategic plan, go for
excellence."(xiv) We are still operating at this entrepreneurial
level, striving and driving for bigger and better things, but perhaps on
a personal level. The negative qualities come to mind: greed and
judgment, religious stubbornness, scientism. And dare I mention politics?
Orange of course, like Jupiter, has some great qualities: seeing the big
picture, global strategies, hope and faith, and we are seeing these
too.

Or maybe Green, since I am an astrologer!

Wilber associates Green with the baby-boomers, hence the title of
his book. This is the generation, I believe, tasked with getting to grips
with Uranus, ready for the leap we are now in. The dates do not fit well
with the discovery for Uranus; however, this is just an estimate and I
would suggest that a field takes a while to take hold. Wilber on Green:
"We can all come to understand who we are and how wondrous it is to be
human if we will only accept that everyone is equal and important.… Each
spirit is connected to all others in our community;… Groups of people
working together are the best way to advance knowledge." His summary
says, among other things: "Promote a sense of community and caring;
promote gender equality, children's rights and animal welfare; basis of
value communities."(xv) Although some descriptions are a bit Neptunian
(refresh spirituality and bring harmony to all beings of Gaia), most
sound pretty Uranian to me. Perhaps it is encouraging to think that 15%
of our leaders already operate from this level.

The leap into the future

The second tier. Is this Neptune consciousness? Or higher? Or to
quote Wilber again, "The leap into hyperspace of integral awareness"?
Yellow and Turquoise are combined in Wilber's book as holistic or
integral. Second tier understands the Spiral, and that we are operating
at different levels. Each meme is important and still relevant. It is a
tier that "works for both the enjoyment of self and the good of the
entire Spiral of development" and "discovers personal freedom without
harm to others or excesses of self interest." (xvi) It does sound like an
integration of Uranus and Neptune, with perhaps a bit of Chiron thrown
in. The date for Turquoise does roughly match the discovery of Chiron.
'Holistic' is a term often used in association with Chiron, or to quote
Melanie Reinhart,(xvii) the Shamanistic 'Soul Retrieval' – to become
whole again (after something having been cast out). Interesting in the
myth is that after Chiron arrives on the scene, Prometheus (read Uranus,
read astrology) gets reinstated to his rightful place among the gods –
some hope there…

So why is all this important for astrologers?

We know, as no other can, about the positive qualities that
Neptune, Pluto, and with increasing ability, Chiron and Ceres, can offer
at these levels of consciousness. Not only can we affect these planetary
morphic fields by what we say and write about them but also, if new
science is to be believed about where we place our attention, by what we
think about them. Do we not have a duty within the astrological community
to negotiate with these heavenly bodies to get the best out of them? To
make the fields positive? Can we not help our planet by passing on our
unique knowledge with positive messages to our clients about how they too
can use these energies? This way we can co-create both with our clients
and the heavens, a better world.

Endnotes:

(i) Richard
Tarnas, Cosmos and Psyche:
Intimations of a New World View.

(xii) Spiral Dynamics Model: Don Beck, from the
original idea from Clare Graves. Percentages from Spiral
Dynamics, pp.300-301. The years from Spiral Dynamics,
p.50.
Descriptions for colours taken from Ken Wilber's ideas on Spiral
Dynamics Model in Boomeritis, pp.23-30.

Numbers for population and people in power at each level and
number of years from Don Beck, Spiral Dynamics, pp.300-301.

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